Conflict is No Game, or is It?

Summary

Do you handle conflict assertively? Meet conflict head-on with a calm confidence? Or go out of your way to avoid rather than deal with it? If you answered yes to the last question, don’t feel bad. The truth is we have learned from experience that conflict often leads to unproductive consequences: anxiety, anger, intimidation, blame, and resentment. But it doesn’t have to be that way.  Unmanaged conflicts, disagreements, and heated emotions can harm your working and personal relationships; effectively managed conflict promotes cooperation and collaboration and builds stronger connections.  As evaluators, we assume the role of ‘Conflict Manager’ as we inevitably experience conflict in our evaluations. In this workshop, we will be participating in conflict resolution games allowing us to experience the process, transform conflict into collaboration, and practice the skills in a fun and effective manner. Finish the day engaged, confident, and ready to transfer your acquired skills to real life, bringing positive results in your evaluative practice. Win!

You will learn:

  • the benefits of conflict and lose some of the fear associated with conflict.  Informal interaction that conflict-resolution games provide can change attitudes and behavior and be applied in all aspects of evaluative practice.
  • the characteristics and skills necessary to resolve or transform conflict. When evaluators are aware of the skills necessary, they can reinforce and encourage the use of those skills with all stakeholders.
  • obstacles to collaboration and develop the collaborative process. The ultimate goal of conflict games is to deal with differing personality styles, assumptions, and ways of thinking – all skills used in real life.

Facilitator

Carey Gray is the Program Evaluation Coordinator for the Anchorage School District.  She holds a certificate in Conflict Resolution from the University of Alaska Anchorage.  The program is a balanced study of family mediation, alternative dispute resolution, paraprofessional counseling, negotiation, and group facilitation. Instruction was delivered through a train-the trainer format. Carey has also taken courses from the BC Institute of Justice Conflict Resolution Centre and says, “Possessing subject matter expertise is critical to successful navigation through the conflict training.”   Carey has facilitated versions of this workshop for educational leadership and students at the school district and post-secondary levels. During conflict-resolution activities as an avenue of training, Carey pays close attention to participants experiencing the process as well as maintaining a high level of engagement during the debriefing discussion.  Written and face-to-face session feedback is incorporated to improve this workshop on an ongoing basis.

You can contact Carey Gray via email at gray_carey@asdk12.org

Language

English

Level

Beginner

Prerequisites

Participants should have a willingness to learn experientially and a desire to transform conflict into collaboration.  Attendees should prepare to engage, cooperate, share appropriate information, use their common sense and be responsible to generate meaningful conversation.  We will be using conflict-resolution games that are designed to understand conflict, improve communication, value diversity, build trust, raise their emotional intelligence (EQ), and foster collaboration while having fun.

Schedule

Sunday, April 30 from 1:00 to 4:00 pm

Link to CE competencies for evaluators

  • Aware of self as an evaluator (knowledge, skills, dispositions) and reflects on personal evaluation practice (competencies and areas for growth)
  • Identifies and mitigates problems/issues
  • Uses conflict resolution skills